iPhone 5s, 5c to launch on prepaid carrier Cricket Oct. 25
Prepaid wireless carrier Cricket announced on Monday that it will begin carrying both Apple's iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5s on Oct. 25.
The carrier's pre-register page still lists the two devices as "coming soon," but a press release on Monday confirmed Oct. 25 as the date for their arrival on Cricket. Cricket has not yet revealed pricing for the 5s and 5c, but potential customers may be able to get an idea from prices for the current iPhone models. The carrier sells a 16-gigabyte iPhone 5 for $600, a 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S for $500, and an 8-gigabyte iPhone 4 for $400.
Cricket also makes those costs payable in installments. The iPhone 5, for example, is available with a $25 down payment, with the rest of the cost covered in 23 payments of $25. The iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 are available for $21 and $17 down, respectively, with 23 payments remaining until they are paid off.
Cricket is a prepaid subsidiary of Leap Wireless, and it has some 6.2 million customers across the United States. Leap's network features 4G LTE connectivity, but only in select metropolitan areas .
Cricket was the first prepaid carrier in the U.S. to land the iPhone, securing the iPhone 4S and 4 in June of 2012. With this new generation of iPhones, Virgin Mobile beat Cricket to the punch, launching the iPhone 5s and 5c at the beginning of October.
The carrier's pre-register page still lists the two devices as "coming soon," but a press release on Monday confirmed Oct. 25 as the date for their arrival on Cricket. Cricket has not yet revealed pricing for the 5s and 5c, but potential customers may be able to get an idea from prices for the current iPhone models. The carrier sells a 16-gigabyte iPhone 5 for $600, a 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S for $500, and an 8-gigabyte iPhone 4 for $400.
Cricket also makes those costs payable in installments. The iPhone 5, for example, is available with a $25 down payment, with the rest of the cost covered in 23 payments of $25. The iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 are available for $21 and $17 down, respectively, with 23 payments remaining until they are paid off.
Cricket is a prepaid subsidiary of Leap Wireless, and it has some 6.2 million customers across the United States. Leap's network features 4G LTE connectivity, but only in select metropolitan areas .
Cricket was the first prepaid carrier in the U.S. to land the iPhone, securing the iPhone 4S and 4 in June of 2012. With this new generation of iPhones, Virgin Mobile beat Cricket to the punch, launching the iPhone 5s and 5c at the beginning of October.
Comments
It would be an interesting article on how the pre-paid plans compare with each other.
Walmart, Cricket, Virgin, etc.
As I understand it, prepaid is the fastest growing segment of wireless but the least profitable for the telco's.
Sounds like progress, to me.
yikes! that's a pretty embarrassing price for 8GB of 3 year old tech.
I'm too concerned about phone calls since I rarely make them. Texts are far more important. It could just be my super outdated phone, the Samsung Messager Touch. You get what you pay for, I guess.
I did try to get the Cricket iPhone earlier this year, but was told it was only available in Texas. I'm hoping the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C will be available in Maryland. If not I may have to switch to Virgin for prepaid.
AT&T just bought Leap Wireless a few weeks ago. Leap is the parent company of Cricket. They said at the time they would basically leave Cricket alone to run as an independent but allow them to share AT&T spectrum.
how about news for those that already ordered weeks ago? I am going to be quite upset of new customers start receiving phones before outstanding orders are filled
AT&T just bought Leap Wireless a few weeks ago. Leap is the parent company of Cricket. They said at the time they would basically leave Cricket alone to run as an independent but allow them to share AT&T spectrum.
I thought Cricket was one of the many piggybacking on the Sprint network. Does this mean they're switching to the ATT one? Or that Cricket phones will access both?
Or am I wrong in the first place?
I wonder how many outstanding 5s orders there are currently?
I thought Cricket was one of the many piggybacking on the Sprint network. Does this mean they're switching to the ATT one? Or that Cricket phones will access both?
Or am I wrong in the first place?
Cricket had their own towers and some roaming agreements with other carriers. But one thing is for sure, they will be owned by AT&T (if the deal gets approved) so not sure what changes AT&T will implement.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/12/4518706/what-does-at-ts-deal-to-buy-cricket-mean-to-you
Cricket had their own towers and some roaming agreements with other carriers. But one thing is for sure, they will be owned by AT&T (if the deal gets approved) so not sure what changes AT&T will implement.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/12/4518706/what-does-at-ts-deal-to-buy-cricket-mean-to-you
Might not be much of a change. I came from Cingular and I still have rollover minutes.
There good with iPhones on coverage I was with cricket for many years an this year they really picked there game up on it an now cricket got bought off by AT&T they will be better I had a iPhone with cricket 32gb iPhone 4S & 4 there good on reception an data but sadly there were costing too much for payments on iPhone 5 so I went to tmobile which was a lot cheaper